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The U.N. nuclear watchdog planned a major report on Iran that might have revealed more of its suspected atomic bomb research, but held off as Tehran's relations with the outside world thawed, sources familiar with the matter said. Such a report - to have been prepared last year - would almost certainly have angered Iran and complicated efforts to settle a decade-old dispute over its atomic aspirations, moves which accelerated after pragmatic President Hassan Rouhani took office in August.

-excerpt- There’s no doubt that ElBaradei represents the smallest and least powerful of the main factions supporting big reform in post-Mubarak Egypt — the others being Team Muslim Brotherhood and Team Army. -excerpt- For the Army, ElBaradei is the closest they’ve got to a Terry MacAuliffe — love him or hate him, he keeps those donors writing checks. US dismay over regulations which prohibit foreign aid to coup-stricken countries will surely abate when it’s ElBaradei standing beside President Obama in the Rose Garden.

Leading liberal Egyptian politician Mohamed ElBaradei is to be named prime minister, the BBC understands. Mena state news agency says he is meeting interim President Adly Mahmud Mansour, three days after the army removed Islamist leader Mohammed Morsi amid growing nationwide unrest. …

Why is Morsi committing to an investment of billions of dollars when it is embroiled in economic crisis that is fueling unrest in an already explosive political environment? Earlier this week, Egypt announced that it is seeking Russian assistance to revive its nuclear program. Why is the government of Mohamed Morsi committing itself to an investment of billions of dollars when it is embroiled in economic crisis that is fueling unrest in an already explosive political environment? It seems to be a move by the Muslim Brotherhood-led government to solidify the country’s position as a regional power, as well as...

Russia will help Egypt develop its nuclear power program, Trade and Industry Minister Hatem Saleh said on Monday, signaling that the Islamist-led state will press ahead with its quest for atomic energy. Egypt froze its nuclear program after the 1986 nuclear disaster at Chernobyl, but in 2006, the government of deposed President Hosni Mubarak announced it would revive the program. … Mursi met Russian President Vladimir Putin last week during an official visit to Russia. Saleh denied that Egypt had sought financial support from Russia to ease a severe economic crisis, which saw its foreign reserves drop to a critical...

Exclusive: North Korea tells China of preparations for fresh nuclear test By Benjamin Kang Lim BEIJING | Fri Feb 15, 2013 8:31am EST (Reuters) - North Korea has told its key ally, China, that it is prepared to stage one or even two more nuclear tests this year in an effort to force the United States into diplomatic talks with Pyongyang, said a source with direct knowledge of the message. Further tests could also be accompanied this year by another rocket launch, said the source who has direct access to the top levels of government in both Beijing and Pyongyang....

Event Time 2013-02-12 02:57:51 UTC 2013-02-12 11:57:51 UTC+09:00 at epicenter 2013-02-11 21:57:51 UTC-05:00 system time Location 41.299°N 129.081°E depth=1.0km (0.6mi) Nearby Cities 24km (15mi) ENE of Sungjibaegam, North Korea 34km (21mi) WNW of Hau-ri, North Korea 42km (26mi) NNW of Kilju, North Korea 51km (32mi) WSW of Hoemul-li, North Korea 378km (235mi) NE of Pyongyang, North Korea Related Links View location in Google Maps

A former chief of Israeli military intelligence says Iran could develop a nuclear weapon within the next four to six months. Amos Yadlin says Iran already has all the necessary components needed to build a nuclear bomb. … Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said Iran could pass the threshold Israel could no longer tolerate by this spring or summer. …

The UN atomic watchdog made clear on Tuesday it had seen no sign of any explosion at one of Iran's most sensitive nuclear plants, backing up Tehran's denial that such an incident had taken place last week. The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), in an unusual move, made a brief statement following media reports at the weekend of significant damage at the underground Fordo uranium enrichment site. ....

The secret, one-on-one nuclear negotiations President Barack Obama launched with Iran have run into a blank wall. A senior Iranian team member, Mostafa Dolatyar, said Friday, Dec. 14 in New Delhi that the diplomatic process for solving the nuclear issue with Iran was in effect going nowhere, because the demand that Tehran halt its 20-percent enrichment of uranium “doesn’t make sense.” He went on to say: “They [the world powers] have made certain connections with purely technical issues and something purely political. In so far as this is the mentality and this is the approach from 5 + 1 (the...

As previously reported, in resolution GOV/2011/69, the Board stressed that it was essential for Iran and the Agency to intensify their dialogue aimed at the urgent resolution of all outstanding substantive issues for the purpose of providing clarifications regarding those issues, including access to all relevant information, documentation, sites, material and personnel in Iran. In that resolution, the Board also called on Iran to engage seriously and without preconditions in talks aimed at restoring international confidence in the exclusively peaceful nature of Iran’s nuclear programme. In light of this, from January 2012 onwards, Agency and Iranian officials held several rounds...

Iran has suspended the enrichment of uranium stockpiles to the 20% purity needed to bring it a short step from building a nuclear device, news services in the region have reported. Mohammad Hossein Asfari, a member of parliament responsible for foreign policy and national security, was quoted as saying that the move was a "goodwill" gesture, aimed at softening Iran's position before a new round of scheduled talks with the United States after this week's presidential elections. Asfari said he hoped sanctions would be lifted in return for Iran's actions, otherwise it would resume the programme, according to a website...

The Head of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran, Fereidoun Abbasi, said this week that Iran is completing its nuclear activities, the Fars news agency reported. Asked about recent media reports on Iran's new centrifuges in the Fordow uranium enrichment facility, Abbasi told reporters at the end of a cabinet meeting in Tehran on Wednesday that Iran is completing its nuclear activities as scheduled “regardless of the negative western media speculations and reports.” "We are doing our job according to our specified timeline and we are accomplishing them. Our response to such reports is working harder," Abbasi was quoted as...

Last week, Reza Kahlili, a former Revolutionary Guard member wrote that Iran had reached a deal with the Obama Administration to preserve portions of its nuclear program. Hossain Ebrahimi told reporters yesterday that Obama sent the regime a secret message. On Saturday, the Iranian regime confirmed this report. The Iranian regime revealed on Saturday that the Obama Administration sent them a secret message through the Swiss Embassy recognizing their nuclear rights. The Swiss government, acting through its Embassy in Tehran, serves as protecting power for U.S. interests in Iran. Fars News reported, via Weasel Zippers: Senior Iranian parliamentary sources revealed...

Last week, Reza Kahlili, a former Revolutionary Guard member wrote that Iran had reached a deal with the Obama Administration to preserve portions of its nuclear program. Hossain Ebrahimi told reporters yesterday that Obama sent the regime a secret message. On Saturday, the Iranian regime confirmed this report. The Iranian regime revealed on Saturday that the Obama Administration sent them a secret message through the Swiss Embassy recognizing their nuclear rights. The Swiss government, acting through its Embassy in Tehran, serves as protecting power for U.S. interests in Iran. Fars News reported, via Weasel Zippers: Senior Iranian parliamentary sources revealed...

Iran’s Air Defense Base Commander has announced it has built an new unmanned long-range drone (UAV) that can carry a bomb. Brigadier General Farzad Esmaili broke the news one week after Iranian-financed Hizbullah launched a drone that entered Israeli air space before it was blown up by a missile from an F-16 jet. Esmaili did not state whether the new drone, dubbed Hazem, can reach Israel. He “noted that the drone will be used in targeting and identification operations, and for carrying cargo whenever needed,” the government’s semi-official Fars News Agency reported. The Iranian commander added that Hazem is not...

A top Iranian official says that Iran will be able to annihilate Israel within a day. According to The Jerusalem Post, Hojjat al-Eslam Ali Shirazi, representative to Iran’s Qods Force for Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, claims that all they need is “24 hours and an excuse” to attack the Jewish state. “If such a war does happen, it would not be a long war, and it would benefit the entire Islamic umma [the global community of Muslims],” Shirazi said, according to the Post. “We have expertise in fighting wars of attrition and Israel cannot fight a war of attrition.”...

IRAN has returned to the front pages after a summer hiatus. Negotiations aimed at preventing the dreaded Persian Bomb have resumed their desultory course. Iran, although suffering from the international sanctions choreographed by the Obama administration, keeps adding new arrays of centrifuges while insisting the program is strictly nonmilitary. Israel is — or maybe isn’t — edging closer to a unilateral strike..... This strikes me as a good time to address an unnerving question that confronts any concerned student of this subject: Can we live with a nuclear Iran? [....] Now imagine that Iran succeeds in making its way into...

Moscow - Iran's first atomic power plant, a symbol of what the Islamic Republic says is its peaceful nuclear ambition, is now operating at full capacity, Russia's state nuclear corporation Rosatom said on Friday. The Russian-built 1,000-megawatt reactor near the Gulf city of Bushehr, was plugged into Iran's national grid last September, ending years of delays and suspicions that Moscow was using the project as a diplomatic lever. Oil-rich Iran says electricity generation is the main motivation for nuclear work that its adversaries say is really aimed at getting atomic weapons capability.

General Boykin was more pessimistic. "I have a different view, Glenn, I believe that Iran has a nuclear warhead now. Now, that's gonna shock a lot of people, but they've been working for 25 years and they've had the assistance of North Korea as well as the Russians. You don't work for 25 years without succeeding in the development of a warhead."